New Arrested Development season will have 13 — not 10 — episodes, says David Cross

We all know that Arrested Development‘s fourth season is coming to Netflix next year, and while we were previously promised 10 episodes, it seems there’s just too much catching up to do with the Bluths to cram into that space. “I think it’s going to be 13 episodes, not 10. There’s too much story,” AD co-star David Cross tells Rolling Stone. “Some characters will have two-parters. Everybody sort of participates, sometimes in a bigger way and sometimes in a tiny little thread that goes through everybody else’s stories.”

And just as exciting is the fact that, according to Cross, Hurwitz has apparently really outdone himself with the upcoming dozen episodes. “I’m not gonna divulge anything, but I know what the stories are and what Mitch is doing, and it’s so layered. It’s really audacious and amazing. I think a lot of people will miss the work that is involved, the story, the Venn diagrams that are being created, the domino effect that characters have with each other in their various episodes. I know what he’s doing, and this has never been done on a TV show like this. This makes Lost look like a Spalding Grey monologue. You’ll have to watch each episode more than once.”

It’s been unclear as to when we can expect the new episodes; all we’ve been told since the announcement is that they’re coming in 2013, but today a spokesperson for Netflix revealed that it’s been narrowed down to Spring. Still pretty vague, but one step closer to getting a premiere date!